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Detection of radioactivity at trace levels over Europe in 2017

Iodine-131 (131I), a radionuclide of anthropogenic origin, has recently been detected in tiny amounts in the ground-level atmosphere in Europe. The preliminary report states it was first found during week 2 of January 2017 in northern Norway. Iodine-131 was also detected in Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, France and Spain, until the end of January.

I had initially posted a series of comments concerning this i131 being detected as well....but pulled them off

Especially the fact that a US WC-130 nuclear radiation detection aircraft had been deployed to UK...this week....

That the radiation was first detected in the area of Finland and northern Norway and that it had been mentioned on social media that potentially that the Russians had detonated a small tactical nuke or an nuclear mine called ADM...

Problem is i131 is usually associated with radiation released from nuclear rods in a NPP..not necessarily from a small tactical nuke.

And if a tactical nuke there would have been a minor earthquake detected as well and none were detected in Europe THUS the potential of a NPP problem might be the answer that no one wanted to alarm the public about.

But radiation spread that far is highly unusual....even for i131...

Social commenters out of Ukraine were the first to wave off on the comments as they did not detect the normal earthquake one would have expected with a nuke detonation...they viewed it to be Russian disinformation....

I had initially posted a series of comments concerning this i131 being detected as well....but pulled them off

Especially the fact that a US WC-130 nuclear radiation detection aircraft had been deployed to UK...this week....

That the radiation was first detected in the area of Finland and northern Norway and that it had been mentioned on social media that potentially that the Russians had detonated a small tactical nuke or an nuclear mine called ADM...

Problem is i131 is usually associated with radiation released from nuclear rods in a NPP..not necessarily from a small tactical nuke.

And if a tactical nuke there would have been a minor earthquake detected as well and none were detected in Europe THUS the potential of a NPP problem might be the answer that no one wanted to alarm the public about.

But radiation spread that far is highly unusual....even for i131...

Social commenters out of Ukraine were the first to wave off on the comments as they did not detect the normal earthquake one would have expected with a nuke detonation...they viewed it to be Russian disinformation....

Could this be the result of a radioactive incident in Murmansk? Perhaps related to a SSBN?

Could this be the result of a radioactive incident in Murmansk? Perhaps related to a SSBN?

Azor...actually if the reports of i131 are indeed accurate and widespread the source could have been a Russian nuclear sub....as that harbor is far enough north and the wind currents have been coming from first easterly then lately westerly....as the weather patterns have been changing...

All sources indicate that this type of radiation is inherently tied to a nuclear reactor not a nuclear weapon...

So actually you might be right as the Russian Navy does not have a great safety track record on their subs...ie sinkings...fires during repairs etc....and an accidental release might have occurred if they were either changing out the reactor rods and or decommissioning an older nuclear sub....

Reference the i131 leakage being reporting in multiple European locations...

While European authorities keep telling us, they have no idea where the sudden Iodine-131 rise across the continent comes from ...

EXTREMELY unusual to see a RC135 Rivet Joint on this type of mission as it is a elint and sigint aircraft....

DEFINTELY searching for something.....and it is just not a let's just go out and fly around game....and get some air time in....these aircraft cost big bucks to fly...something or somebody is in serious trouble somewhere....i131 is associated to a nuclear reactor...

Reference the i131 leakage being reporting in multiple European locations...

While European authorities keep telling us, they have no idea where the sudden Iodine-131 rise across the continent comes from ...

EXTREMELY unusual to see a RC135 Rivet Joint on this type of mission as it is a elint and sigint aircraft....

DEFINTELY searching for something.....and it is just not a let's just go out and fly around game....and get some air time in....these aircraft cost big bucks to fly...something or somebody is in serious trouble somewhere....i131 is associated to a nuclear reactor...Nuke sniffer - Constant Phoenix
Airborne from RAF Mildenhall
US Air Force - WC-135C
62-3582 FLORY58

U.S. WC-135 nuclear sniffer airplane has left the UK heading towards Norway and the Barents Sea

By David Cenciotti

The WC-135 Constant Phoenix has launched from RAF Mildenhall earlier today for a mission towards northern Europe and the Barents Sea. Interestingly, an RC-135W spyplane has launched from the same base on the same route. What’s their mission?
As you probably already know, on Feb. 17, 2017, U.S. Air Force WC-135C Constant Phoenix Nuclear explosion “sniffer,” serial number 62-3582, deployed to RAF Mildenhall, UK, using radio callsign “Cobra 55.”

Whereas it was not the first time the Constant Phoenix visited the British airbase, the deployment to the UK amidst growing concern about an alleged spike in iodine levels recorded in northern Europe fueled speculations that the WC-135 might be tasked with investigating the reason behind the released Iodine-131.

In fact, along with monitoring nuclear weapons testing, the WC-135 can be used to track radioactive activity, as happened after the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986 and Fukushima incident back in 2011, by collecting particles and chemical substances in the atmosphere, days, weeks, or sometimes even month after they were dispersed.

Whilst the reason of the deployment has yet to be confirmed (actually, there are still contradictory reports about the spike in Iodine-131) the WC-135 has departed for its first mission since it arrived at Mildenhall: on Feb. 22, at around 11.50LT, the nuclear “sniffer” aircraft has departed for a mission towards Norway and the Barents Sea.

The WC-135C (radio callsign “Flory 58”) was supported by two KC-135 tankers (“Quid 524” and “525”)suggesting it had just started a very long mission and somehow accompanied, along the same route, by an RC-135W (“Pulpy 81”) and another Stratotanker (“Quid 513”).
Tracking north off the east coast of Scotland.
RC-135W & WC-135C + 3 accompanying KC-135 tankers…
pic.twitter.com/y8LIAxRpoh

For sure, once the aircraft reached Aberdeen, eastern Scotland, they turned off their transponder becoming invisible to the flight tracking websites such as Flightradar24.com or Global.adsbexchange.com that use ADS-B, Mode S and MLAT technologies to monitor flights: a sign they were going operational and didn’t want to be tracked online.

Last edited by davidbfpo; 02-22-2017 at 09:05 PM.
Reason: Moved from Ukraine thread

Reference the i131 leakage being reporting in multiple European locations...

While European authorities keep telling us, they have no idea where the sudden Iodine-131 rise across the continent comes from ...

EXTREMELY unusual to see a RC135 Rivet Joint on this type of mission as it is a elint and sigint aircraft....

DEFINTELY searching for something.....and it is just not a let's just go out and fly around game....and get some air time in....these aircraft cost big bucks to fly...something or somebody is in serious trouble somewhere....i131 is associated to a nuclear reactor...

The U.S. Air Force’s WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft, capable of detecting nuclear explosions, deployed to the United Kingdom last week for a routine mission, the service said Wednesday.

The “nuke hunter” plane, also known as the “sniffer,” is on a “pre-planned rotational deployment scheduled in advance,” Air Force spokeswoman Erika Yepsen told Military.com.

The WC-135 “regularly flies around the world for missions,” added Col. Patrick Ryder. “Any of the reporting in terms of having another reason [is] not grounded in fact,” the service’s chief spokesman said.

There has been ongoing speculation the U.S. sent the detection aircraft to Europe after an alleged Russian nuclear test, which caused radioactive levels to “spike” in areas such as Norway, according to The Aviationist blog, which first tracked the aircraft Feb. 17.

According to the The French Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute, a research organization and environmental protection advocacy agency that tracks nuclear activity throughout the globe, trace amounts of Iodine-131 (131I) — a radioisotope of iodine that has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days — were detected in Norway, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, France and Spain throughout January.

The presence of Iodine-131 “is proof of a rather recent release,” the organization said.

Government agencies have not come forward to explain the radiation. Experts, however, say the leaks are not a mystery.

Scientist Jayde Lovell, host of TYT network’s ScIQ and executive director of ReAgency, a PR firm that specializes in science storytelling, told the International Business Times UK, “Iodine-131 is not a mystery.

“It’s released in low levels normally as part of nuclear power and, since nuclear power is common throughout Europe, it’s not unusual to be able to detect trace amounts during certain types of weather, particularly the cold weather of a European winter,” she told the newspaper.

“I would be expecting to see a lot more and more different kinds of radiation than just Iodine-131 if it was a nuclear test,” Lovell said.

Why a cover story....if one tracks the reported flow of the i131 reporting's they started out in northern Norway/Finland then followed by reports from Poland and then Czech Republic...then mid to southern Germany...southern France and then ending in southern Spain.

The so called winter excuse given in this report is totally false as the wind conditions at the time were mainly from East to West and changing at the end of the eight days back to West to East.....and based on the half life it would have died out over Spain....

If in fact as the story states it is far normal NPP operations...the initial reports did not originate in an area where there is a heavy concentration of NPPs....actually none to speak of able to create a moving cloud capable of being detected.

WHAT is also interesting ....if the WC-135 was on routine missions...then why was it then not announced as it flew very quietly into UK...and only after being tracked by civilian observers does this story now come out....

And the article does not explain the joint operation yesterday with a RC-135W SIGINT aircraft...which normally flies their own collection routes recently over the Baltic and Black Sea areas....

BLUF:
There has been absolutely no comments made by any EU Research Center as to why the levels of i131 were high enough to actually track...nor has any EU government commented on this...nor why initially reported in northern Norway and Finland.

Why a cover story....if one tracks the reported flow of the i131 reporting's they started out in northern Norway/Finland then followed by reports from Poland and then Czech Republic...then mid to southern Germany...southern France and then ending in southern Spain.

The so called winter excuse given in this report is totally false as the wind conditions at the time were mainly from East to West and changing at the end of the eight days back to West to East.....and based on the half life it would have died out over Spain....

If in fact as the story states it is far normal NPP operations...the initial reports did not originate in an area where there is a heavy concentration of NPPs....actually none to speak of able to create a moving cloud capable of being detected.

WHAT is also interesting ....if the WC-135 was on routine missions...then why was it then not announced as it flew very quietly into UK...and only after being tracked by civilian observers does this story now come out....

And the article does not explain the joint operation yesterday with a RC-135W SIGINT aircraft...which normally flies their own collection routes recently over the Baltic and Black Sea areas....

BLUF:
There has been absolutely no comments made by any EU Research Center as to why the levels of i131 were high enough to actually track...nor has any EU government commented on this...nor why initially reported in northern Norway and Finland.

BTW..comments from Ukrainian military sources indicate the WC-135 yesterday was in fact checking for i131 levels...that is why the initial radar track altitude was higher than normal....and the RC135W was checking for possible Russian military chemical/nuclear troop cleanup of a nuclear accident...

Range of the air ops was long if one notices they flew with three refueling tankers....

Intense US/UK recce and nuclear detection aircraft in and or near Poland.....indication of more US recce aircraft inbound to Europe....part of NATO exercises and or still looking for i131...hard to tell...

Finally, a return to Cold War level humor

From TASS -

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. Russian industrial safety watchdog Rostekhnadzor has not found any breaches at the Mayak nuclear facility in the south Urals during its check of media reports about ruthenium-106 levels detected in some European countries, Rostekhnadzor said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW — Russia said Tuesday for the first time that it had detected a significant radiation spike in the Ural Mountains, close to a sprawling Soviet-era nuclear plant still remembered as the site of an accident 60 years ago. But it rejected suggestions that it was the source of a radioactive cloud that hovered over Europe.
The location of the spike — in the Chelyabinsk region near the border with Kazakhstan — has been identified by French and German nuclear safety institutions as a potential source for a concentration of a radioactive isotope called ruthenium 106 detected in the air in late September above several European countries.
But nuclear energy authorities in Moscow insisted Monday that still-higher levels of atmospheric contamination had been detected outside Russia, in south eastern Europe.
Reports of the elevated radiation levels over Western Europe raised alarms, but nuclear safety authorities in France and Germany said there was no threat to human health or to the environment — an assurance repeated on Tuesday by Moscow.
The Russian state weather service Roshydromet said it had found what the Russian news media described as “extremely high pollution” at two monitoring facilities within a 62-mile radius of the Mayak nuclear reprocessing and isotope production plant.

Russia's meteorological service, Roshydromet, has for the first time corroborated findings made by the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRNS).
They acknowledged "extremely high contamination" above the Ural Mountains, detecting levels of the radioactive isotope ruthenium–106 up to almost 1,000 times the normal amount.